creative couple

MONSTER JOURNAL

Summer vacation is fast approaching. Children everywhere are having visions of endless days in the sun with no school books or homework. While many kids will be fortunate to participate in camps that keep their minds active, other children may be facing months with little reading and perhaps no writing at all. There is a way to encourage your children to keep exercising their minds, even if summer camps are not an option. The “MONSTER JOURNAL” is a small personal journal that children can fill with their thoughts, observations, poems, doodles, or whatever else flows out of the end of a pencil. Heavily illustrated with monster characters, this journal opens the door to free style writing and drawing.

CREATIVE COUPLE

I once again had the help of my creative husband, Eddie, on this project. Together, we borrowed from the theme and illustrations that we created for the 8.5″x11″ “MONSTER MUSIC JOURNAL” (created for young music students), and produced a conveniently-sized, carry-anywhere journal that all kids can squeeze into their backpacks and carry around with them all summer.

UNIQUE JOURNAL PAGES

Each page in the journal is different. Variety is the spice of life, and we like to spice it up. Layouts change from page to page, so boredom buttons are unlikely to be pushed. Pages balance opportunity to draw with space to write. Block blanks and lined areas provide ample space for jotting down ideas or observations. The line spacing was chosen to be comfortable for younger writers. We added new illustrations of monsters (cute and ugly) that you won’t see in the book’s big brother, the “MONSTER MUSIC JOURNAL“. The monster characters take the form of line images so if your child likes to color pictures, there is opportunity to do that page after page. The wide variety of characters won’t just stimulate the child’s imagination, but may also serve as a writing prompt for more reluctant writers.

HOW THE MONSTER JOURNAL GETS KIDS WRITING

The MONSTER JOURNAL itself does not provide explicit writing or drawing prompts. We prefer to let the child’s imagination be prompted by what they see and imagine themselves. However, we understand that many children are reluctant writers or artists, and may feel somewhat intimidated by open spaces that need to be filled. If this is the case, we suggest that the children be encouraged to describe what the monsters look like, to write about what the monsters are thinking or doing, or to guess what the homes of the monsters might be like.

STOCK UP FOR SUMMER

Right now, the “MONSTER JOURNAL” is available directly from Lulu Publishers, and can soon be ordered from your favorite online bookstore. Don’t let the summer slip away without giving your child the chance to exercise creative expression. Whether it is coloring, drawing, creative writing, or just practicing handwriting, the MONSTER JOURNAL is eager to become your child’s tool for exercising creativity.